RATB brigade returns from Cuba
Members and supporters of the Revolutionary Communist Group and Rock Around the Blockade returned in May from a two week fact finding and solidarity brigade to Cuba. After spending the first few days in Havana the brigade travelled across Cuba to the easternmost province of Guantanamo before returning to the capital.
Among the places visited in a packed itinerary were primary schools, the international schools of medicine and sports, the school for social workers, a Pioneers Palace, clinics, an orphanage, a nursery, an old people’s home, a chocolate factory that was first opened by Che Guevara and organisations for arts and music. The members of the brigade talked with people, on the streets and in their local organisations; to students, young people, children, journalists, religious believers and workers. They had discussions with members of local Committees for the Defence of the Revolution (CDRs), women’s groups (FMC), with leading members of the Cuban Communist Party and of the Union of Young Communists (UJC), who hosted the brigade.
In Guantanamo the brigade was able to check out the mobile sound system that had been donated by a previous RATB brigade and which was being used two or three times every day to take music and politics to young people in every corner of the province. By contrast they also visited the area overlooking the US naval base where prisoners, many of them young people, are still being held without trial in Camps X Ray and Delta. Back in Havana the brigade took part in the May Day celebrations in Revolution Square and joined over a million Cubans and other revolutionaries from around the world in singing the Internationale. The brigade has come back full of enthusiasm and up-to-the-minute information. On these pages you can read some of their reports and their most vivid impressions. To hear more make sure you get to one of the brigade report-back meetings (details on back page) and visit our website at www.ratb.org.uk.
Defending Socialism in Cuba
by Hannah Caller and Cat Wiener
from Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No.135, February/March 1997
At the end of December, Rock around the Blockade's work over the last year culminated in taking a brigade of 21 young people - the No Pasaran! brigade - to Cuba, taking with us equipment for a mobile disco requested by the Union of Young Communists (UJC) of Ciego de Avila.
Rock around the Blockade was set up in 1995 by the Revolutionary Communist Group to support the defence of socialism and linking work in solidarity with the Cuban Revolution with the goal of building a socialist movement here in Britain.
The special period: economic gains and risks
FRFI 147 February / March 1999
Reports include
Revolution tightens its grip
Build one, two and many brigades
Children of the revolution
Brigade visits family doctor's clinic
Brigadistas comments
RATB Brigade
This year's brigade was in Cuba at an exciting time - not only for the opportunity to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Revolution in the small rural community of Fomento, dancing to the beat of the sound system provided by Rock around the Blockade. It was also a time when Cuban communists themselves were reaffirming their commitment to the Revolution and taking measures to protect its gains against the encroachment of capitalist mechanisms. Just before the brigade arrived in Cuba, the Union of Young Communists (UJC) had held its VII Congress, analysing and discussing its role as the vanguard of Cuban youth. Alongside this, measures were being taken by the government to clamp down on crime and antisocial behaviour. The 16 brigadistas picked coffee alongside a contingent of pre-university students, visited schools, an orphanage, family doctors and a children's centre and a committee for the defence of the Revolution (CDR). We were offered constant opportunities to meet and discuss with Cubans the realities of their Revolution. We were overwhelmed by the openness, generosity and revolutionary enthusiasm that we found. As one brigadista says, we return 'rearmed' to fight the battles that confront us here in Britain, inspired by the example of Cuba's socialist state.
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